Information needs for the rapid response team electronic clinical tool

BACKGROUND Information overload in healthcare is dangerous. It can lead to critical errors and delays. During Rapid Response Team (RRT) activations providers must make decisions quickly to rescue patients from physiological deterioration. In order to understand the clinical data required and how best to present that information in electronic systems we aimed to better assess the data needs of providers on the RRT when they respond to an event. METHODS A web based survey to evaluate clinical data requirements was created and distributed to all RRT providers at our institution. Participants were asked to rate the importance of each data item in guiding clinical decisions during a RRT event response. RESULTS There were 96 surveys completed (24.5% response rate) with fairly even distribution throughout all clinical roles on the RRT. Physiological data including heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure were ranked by more than 80% of responders as being critical information. Resuscitation status was also considered critically useful by more than 85% of providers. CONCLUSION There is a limited dataset that is considered important during an RRT. The data is widely available in EMR. The findings from this study could be used to improve user-centered EMR interfaces.